Old World Style on the Upper East Side

Sept. 26, 2012 9:42 a.m. ET

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Kenneth Laub, 73 years old, bought this townhouse, pictured second from right, on E. 64th Street near Lexington Avenue in 1986 for $4 million. A corporate real estate broker who founded his own company, Mr. Laub was searching for a change from high-rise living at the time. 'I had a driving, emotional desire to have larger rooms, higher ceilings, fireplaces and all the amenities that went with townhouse living,' he says.
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In 1991 Mr. Laub embarked on a two-year renovation of the home which he says cost 'more than double what I paid for the property.' The ground floor foyer and staircase of the townhouse, believed to be built in 1872, is pictured.
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Here, the kitchen on the ground floor. Mr. Laub says that redoing the wiring of the house alone took three months. He describes the house as having an 'antiquated infrastructure' that needed an upgrade. He spent four years thinking about the renovation and interviewing designers before choosing to work with interior designer Ronald Brick. His plans for the house focused on 'taking into consideration the whole of the property, and not just parts of it,' he says.
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Here, the music room. The home has four floors as well as a basement with storage rooms, laundry and wine cellar. The second floor, also called the parlor floor, is devoted to entertainment and is the heart of the property, says Mr. Laub. He removed the doors in the second floor rooms to create an 87-foot room flow and restored the original pine used in the home.
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Pictured, a view of the music room where Mr. Laub, also a composer, will occasionally play for his guests. Recording is made possible in the music room through sound system wiring that goes under the second floor. The floor has four 18th- and 19th-century chandeliers from Europe, including one in the library that weighs 450 pounds, according to Mr. Laub.
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Here, the library, with bronze chandelier. 'To me, [the house] is unbelievably warm,' says Mr. Laub. 'It feels like you're living in an extremely serene but highly theatrical facility with all the bells and whistles that you could possibly need.'
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Here, the parlor floor's atrium, measuring 15 feet by 13 feet with a bar, is located between the living room and dining room. The atrium extends upward and can be looked out on from the fourth-floor study. It is one of Mr. Laub's favorite parts of the house, and he describes the parlor floor rooms as 'bright' and 'beautiful.'
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Here, the dining room, which can seat 12 to 16 people comfortably, says Mr. Laub. The home has eight fireplaces, which Mr. Laub fitted with mantelpieces he had collected over time. He left one fireplace from the original house unchanged, an inactive coal fireplace on the fourth floor.
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Here, one of two master bedroom suites with jacuzzis that are situated on the third and fourth floors of the home. The townhouse has five bedrooms in total. One is currently used as a study and another, designed for live-in help, is directly accessible from the kitchen with its own bathroom.
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One of two master bathrooms is pictured.The home has six full bathrooms and one half bath and has roughly 8,000 livable square feet, says Eva Penson of Halstead Property, the exclusive broker for the property. Ms. Penson says she has seen interest in the home from prospective buyers in countries such as Russia and Brazil, which she recently visited for a conference.
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One of the guest bedrooms is pictured. Zoning permission exists to add 2,000 square feet to the property in the form of a fifth floor, according to Mr. Laub. Mr. Laub believes the market is amenable to the current price and he is looking to move to another property in the city that will be no more than 4,000 square feet.
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Here, one of home's guest bathrooms, which feature onyx and marble.
Claudio Papapietro for The Wall Street Journal…

Another guest bedroom is pictured. Mr. Laub says he sourced many of his fabrics from Paris. 'I believe whoever gets this place is going to be a very lucky person,' says Mr. Laub. 'All I hope is that the person appreciates what I've done and appreciates the work of Ronald Brick because this house purrs like a cat. It's a comfortable place to live.'
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The fourth-floor terrace is wired for sound and is 'like a little piece of Europe,' says Mr. Laub. Measuring roughly 350-square-feet, it has the same red brickwork that features on the front of the house and a snow-melting blanket underneath the blue stone floor.
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The view to East 64th Street from one of the master bedrooms. The home was initially listed by Mr. Laub in 2008 for $35 million. It was then listed by Brown Harris Stevens for $29.95 million in 2011. Halstead Property became the exclusive agency for the property this year and listed the home at its current price of $27.75 million in August.
Claudio Papapietro for The Wall Street Journal…